Eye on the Gulf: Entergy watching storm path

Entergy Texas officials have their eye on the Gulf of Mexico today as preparations are underway for the first storm of the 2015 hurricane season, a season that began just two weeks ago.

Called only Disturbance 7, the storm may become a tropical storm today. Whatever named status it achieves, it is expected to bring heavy rains to areas of Southeast Texas that remain waterlogged from May’s unprecedented rainfall amounts. The storm will also be accompanied by high winds, which can cause power outages.

“Our employees are on alert, plus we’ve notified our contractors to be ready,” said

Vernon Pierce, vice president of customer service for Entergy Texas. “We prepare for the worst and hope for the best and we are ready for whatever may happen with this first storm.”

Tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes are something all Southeast Texans need to be concerned about and prepare for because hurricane damage is not limited to coastal areas. While storm surge mainly affects the coastline, inland areas can see flooding, tornadoes and high winds.

“All of these hazards pose threats for our company and our customers,” Pierce said. said. “Tornadoes destroy electrical infrastructure, high winds bring down trees and power

lines, and grounds saturated by floods can lead to falling trees which can damage electrical poles.”

“But we’ll be ready for any threat, because preparing for hurricane season is an ongoing process for Entergy,” he added. “Being storm-ready is the key to a safe and quick restoration.”

Customers can prepare by visiting entergytexas.com and exploring resources made available. They may also follow @EntergyTX on Twitter and facebook.com/EntergyTX, and download Entergy’s free mobile app at http://entergyapp.com/ to access outage maps and information. In addition, storm preparedness tips, updates and information about outages and a link to the View Outages map are on the entergy storm center website.

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to more than 430,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation’s leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.